Four Arguments for Microhistory

This article argues that microhistory (the intensive historical investigation of a relatively small subject) has four distinct advantages over traditional macro-oriented social history: it is appealing to the general public, it is much closer to reality, it conveys personal experience directly and, with all the lines branching out from the event, person or community in the focus of the investigation, it points towards the general. Since too heavy reliance on either of these four characteristics can produce specific distortions of the microhistorical work, historians should attempt to reach a balance.